1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biofeedback apparatus capable of simultaneously performing diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence or the like, and more particularly, to an effective biofeedback apparatus and a control method for the apparatus capable of simultaneously performing pressure measurement for diagnosis and magnetic stimulation for treatment by a configuration including a magnetic stimulator for treatment of urinary incontinence or the like and a pressure measurement device for biofeedback without insertion of a tool into a human body such as vagina or urethra.
2. Description of the Related Art
Treatment using biofeedback is a treatment method of measuring physiological phenomena occurring in a human body by using a sensor and helping a patient to adjust the physiological phenomena through patient's own exercise while monitoring the physiological phenomena visually or aurally.
Urinary incontinence is a symptom of leakage of urine which involuntarily occurs when an internal pressure of bladder exceeds a restraint force of urethral sphincter at the time of coughing or the like due to a failure of adjustment function of the bladder and the urethral sphincter muscles. Although the urinary incontinence occurs in both of women and men, the urinary incontinence manly occurs in women due to women's physical characteristics and parturition.
As treatment methods for the urinary incontinence, there are drug therapy, surgical treatment, and the like. However, since the methods have bad side effects, as more fundamental treatment methods, a treatment method using sphincter muscle strengthening exercise (Kegel exercise) or pelvic muscle strengthening exercise using biofeedback may be employed. The biological muscle exercise method using biofeedback is a complement of the Kegel exercise. In the biological muscle exercise method, the state of movement of the sphincter muscle is diagnosed by using an electromyogram (EMG) sensor or the like measuring the movement of the biological muscles. After monitoring the diagnosed state, the patient repeats a process of constricting the muscles and a process of adjusting a strength of a constriction force by adjusting patient's own muscles.
Through these processes, the sphincter muscle which is an involuntary muscle is strengthened in the exercise, so that the constricting pressure of the urethral sphincter muscle is increased. As a result, the effect of treatment improving the symptom of the urinary incontinence is obtained.
As described above, in addition to the biofeedback training where the patient does the muscle strengthening exercise with the patient's own force, there is developed a technique using a biological muscle stimulation method where muscle strengthening and biofeedback training can be performed by applying an electric stimulus to pelvic floor muscles to forcibly move weak muscles. As described later, various techniques for the biological muscles electric stimulation method was disclosed.
Korean Registered Patent No. 10-0377104 relates to a “body-cavity insertion electrode” and discloses an electrode which is inserted into an inner portion of vagina or anus to provide an EMG signal. FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram illustrating a body-cavity insertion electrode disclosed in the aforementioned patent.
Korean Registered Patent No. 10-0674042 relates to a “urinary incontinence treatment apparatus having a pressure sensor” instead of an EMG sensor as a method of performing biofeedback and electric stimulation and discloses a pressure sensor measuring a pressure and an electrode unit transmitting an electric stimulus to muscles inside a body cavity.
In addition, Korean Registered Patent No. 10-0816847 relates to a “urinary/anal incontinence treatment apparatus” and discloses a pressure sensor of measuring an internal pressure of a body cavity and an electrode unit of measuring a muscular strength of an anal sphincter muscle or pelvic floor muscles or applying an electric stimulus.
The apparatus disclosed in the above patent is a treatment apparatus using electric stimulation including an electrode which is inserted into the body cavity to be in direct contact with the muscle to applying the electric stimulus.
In the apparatus, since the electrode having an electric conductivity is exposed to an outside, there is a problem in that the electrode is not easy to perform cleaning, sterilization, and disinfection. As a result, the repetitive use of the unclean apparatus may result in infection in the patient. In addition, since the apparatus is inserted into the body, there is a problem in that the use is inconvenient and the patient feels discomfort. In addition, since the apparatus directly applies an electric stimulus to a human body, there is problem in that, sometimes, the patient suffers from an electrical burn injury or feels pain.
The apparatus of the related art which performs the biofeedback using the EMG signal and the electric stimulation performs an EMG measurement function of allowing a patient to move pelvic muscles with patient's own will and monitor the movement state and an electric stimulation function of forcibly applying an electric stimulus to patient's sphincter muscle to forcibly move the sphincter muscle. In the apparatus of the related art, in general, since the same electrode is used for performing the EMG measurement function and the electric stimulation function, there is a problem in that the EMG measurement causing the biofeedback and the electric stimulation causing forcible movement cannot be simultaneously performed. Namely, the EMG measurement and the EMG stimulation (or electric stimulation) are only to be sequentially performed. In this manner, in the case where the measurement and the stimulation are sequentially performed, since the patient cannot immediately compare the strength of the movement of the sphincter muscle caused by the patient's own force and the strength of the movement of the sphincter muscle caused by the force of the electric stimulation, the evaluation of the treatment course and the state of the muscles is unclear. Therefore, in the case where long-term repetitive treatment is required, the patient may give up the treatment on the way. Since the biofeedback apparatus of the related art cannot simultaneously perform the measurement and the stimulation, there is a problem in that the efficiency is deteriorated.
On the other hand, in order to solve the problem of the aforementioned insertion type electric stimulation treatment method such as infection, discomfort, skin damage, or the like, a urinary incontinence treatment apparatus using a magnetic field was developed. The urinary incontinence treatment apparatus using the magnetic field is a non-contact, non-insertion type treatment apparatus and has an advantage of solving problems associated with infection and the problem of discomfort at the time of use. However, in the case of applying the biofeedback at the time of the magnetic stimulation treatment, there is a problem in that it is not easy to detect an internal pressure of a body cavity or an EMG signal. In the method, a magnetic stimulator applies a high voltage to a stimulation coil to generate a strong pulsed magnetic field having a strength of several tesla and applies the pulsed magnetic field to a human body. Since a pressure sensor or an EMG sensor configured with semiconductors and wire lines is influenced by the strong pulsed magnetic field, there is a problem in that the pressure sensor or the EMG sensor is not easy to use together with the magnetic stimulator.
In this manner, although the magnetic stimulator used for the urinary incontinence treatment or the like has many advantages in comparison with other electric stimulation apparatuses, the biofeedback using the EMG sensor or the pressure sensor using the electrode which is to be influenced by the magnetic field is not available.
In addition, in the related art, in order to measure the internal pressure or the EMG signal of the body cavity such as vagina or urethra, a measurement tool is inserted into the human body, so that there is a problem in that the patient feels discomfort or pain. Due to these problems, a technique of measuring the pressure of the body cavity such as vagina or urethra without insertion of a tool into the human body is required.